IT help - Laptop files disappeared

My laptop is about 4-5 years old and has had its shares of issues, but what happened the other day baffles me. The battery died and it wasn't plugged in, so the laptop turned off. When I turned it back on, all of my files were gone. Even Word was not installed anymore. And of course I don't have stuff backed up on a cd somewhere.
Does anyone have any suggestions of how I can recover my files or any advice?

In Windows XP, files containing music, pictures, Word documents, internet shortcuts, and the like, are all stored in a folder that is usually found in the path C:\Documents and Settings\useracct, where useracct is the name under which the user logs in to the computer. Every user on the machine has a different folder, and if, for some reason, the user is logged in under a name different from the one they’re accustomed to, it can appear as though personal files are gone, because the desktop shortcuts they're used to will no longer point to the correct places on the hard drive.

Have your relatives do the following:

Right-click the mouse over the Start button and select Explore.
This usually opens an Explorer window to the Start Menu under the active user account.
Above that, in the list pane to the left, the folder hierarchy for Documents and Settings should appear
Under that folder, all of the accounts that have been set up on the system should have their own folders. Even a deleted account will have a persistent presence there.

User specific data is stored in a hidden folder called C:\Documents and Settings\useracct\Application Data

Music is stored in a folder called C:\Documents and Settings\useracct\My Documents\useracct’s Music

Pictures are stored in a folder called C:\Documents and Settings\useracct\My Documents\My Pictures